Making a pond safe

[pandia]

Does anyone have a recommendation on how to make a garden pond safe for a toddler? So worried about it in our new house. Would prefer not to fill in if avoidable as its a beautiful feature. Thanks

Hi Pandia, friends of ours had a pond in a new property with nothing round it, they used to say it was pointless to even try, if you're not watching the child 24/7 (and who can do that!) it's not safe anyway. They filled it in.

Small ones climb over barriers and from reading about tragic accidents it seems they can manage to get under covers.

Could you maybe fill it in and replace with a different sort of water feature? Something you'll all enjoy but doesn't involved pools of water which could be a danger. Something like this maybe? Nice and engaging for a toddler, plus you'd be able to relax more.

Sorry I couldn't be more help, I know you don't want to fill it in.

We had that issue when we moved house a year ago. As far as we could tell, to make it safe, a cover would have to be a stiff metal grid, so expensive and not very attractive. Luckily the pond was at the end of the garden, so we've fenced that end off, with a gate we are sure DD can't open alone (I have difficulty with the stiff bolt). That way if we are in the garden with her, we can open it, but if we are concentrating on something else or in and out of the house, we can close it and she can still play in the rest of the garden.

Having said that, although my husband tried to make it pretty toddler proof, I'm sure an older child / more physically adventurous child could manage to get over / under it, but we know DD is not adventurous or very good at that sort of thing, and we've drummed it into her that she must stay away from the pond if we are not with her. We know she's sensible, and if other children were there we would watch more carefully.

So I guess it depends on your kids. We ummed and aaahed about our for ages, and I think we made the right decision, but I'm sure others would disagree!